The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics — John Shaqi
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Philosophy
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics
Economics; Philosophy
Space and time are therefore to be regarded as the necessary _a priori_
pre-conditions of the possibility and reality of all phenomena. It is
clear that transcendental æsthetic can obtain only these two elements,
space and time, because all other concepts belong to the senses and
pre-suppose experience, and so imply something empirical. For example,
the concept of motion pre-supposes something moving, but in space
regarded alone there is nothing that moves; therefore, whatever moves
must be recognised by experience, and is a purely empirical datum.
_II.--Transcendental Logic_
Our knowledge is derived from two fundamental sources of the
consciousness. The first is the faculty of receptivity of impressions;
the second, the faculty of cognition of an object by means of these
impressions or representations, this second power being sometimes styled
spontaneity of concepts. By the first, an object is given to us; by the
second it is thought of in the mind. Thus intuition and concepts
constitute the elements of our entire knowledge, for neither intuition
without concepts, nor concepts without intuition, can yield any
knowledge whatever. Hence arise two branches of science, æsthetic and
logic, the former being the science of the rules of sensibility; the
latter, the science of the rules of the understanding.
Logic can be treated in two directions: either as logic of the general
use of the understanding, or of some particular use of it. The former
includes the rules of thought, without which there can be no use of the
understanding; but it has no regard to the objects to which the
understanding is applied. This is elementary logic. But logic of the
understanding in some particular use includes rules of correct thought
in relation to special classes of objects; and this latter logic is
generally taught in schools as preliminary to the study of sciences.
Thus, general logic takes no account of any of the contents of
knowledge, but is limited simply to the consideration of the forms of
thought. But we are constrained by anticipation to form an idea of a
logical science which has to deal not only with pure thought, but also
has to determine the origin, validity, and extent of the knowledge to
which intuitions relate, and this science might be styled transcendental
logic.
In transcendental æsthetic we isolated the faculty of sensibility. So in
transcendental logic we isolate the understanding, concentrating our
consideration on that element of thought which has its source simply in
the understanding. But transcendental logic must be divided into
transcendental analytic and transcendental dialectic. The former is a
logic of truth, and is intended to furnish a canon of criticism. When
logic is used to judge not analytically, but to judge synthetically of
objects in general, it is called transcendental dialectic, which serves
as a protection against sophistical fallacy.
ANALYTIC OF PURE CONCEPTS
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